Tradition plays an important part in all sports. In English football, most notably, a Saturday 3.00pm kick off is tradition. Playing at Wembley in a cup final – this is tradition. A referee and two linesmen in football has always been tradition. BUT, the introduction of two more officials on the pitch, you could consider this absurd. Introduction of five officials. Especially those who have been around to see England’s 1966 World Cup Final win for example, or Manchester United’s famous treble, where the thought of having two more officials would never be dreamt of in anyone’s wildest imaginations, but in today’s game, change is happening, and so is this.
Goal line controversies, the ball going out of play by the by touchline are some examples of the reason why this is happening. Who recalls the Pedro Mendes-Roy Carroll incident at Old Trafford. With the score at 0-0, watch this clip:
Yep.. officiating at England’s top tier, and failing to identify this, is to be honest, abysmal.
Most recently, let’s go to Vicarage Road, home of Watford Football Club. In this Championship fixture, relatively new referee Stuart Attwell came under fire along with his colleagues for allowing this ‘ghost goal’ to count..
I’ll let you make your opinions of linesman Nigel Bannister and referee Stuart Attwell on that one..
But what I want to debate is, do we move on from tradition – banishing the idea of two more officials in today’s football at all or various levels, and continuing the three-official trend, or do we move on, accept change is happening in modern day football, and allow to believe that more officials are required to become more consistent in their performances, and see a decline in faults given.
For tradition, we shouldn’t have to force change. We should be able to rely on officials, to give the right decision and continue the trend set since football began as a professional sport. We shouldn’t have to request TV replays, in which this has been successful however, in cricket and tennis, for unsure decisions. Tradition is great for the game. We don’t and probably will never notice and acknowledge that tradition has been around for-ever.
On the other hand, it is probably what we see now, as a dying breed in the game. Inconsistency at the top level, to give correct decisions has become a liability now. The campaign ‘RESPECT’ for Referees, has been a fail, massively. How can players respect referees, and trust them if they fail to see something which is so obvious to ANYONE? You can not tell me, we should still ‘respect’ referees if they give dubious decisions, horror calls and get away with it. Players are criticised for their performances, managers are criticised in their area of the game. But we are not allowed to barrack referees for failing to identify a goal for instance, or if the ball has run out of play, which leads to a goal? Respect, yes. Don’t abuse them, I am not promoting this, but maybe I feel it is time to bring in more officials. If anything, to protect referees as well as teams. Based on tradition in the previous paragraph, what could I defend? I couldn’t really, could I? My opinions are stacked up against tradition, and we must see consistency at all times now.
FIFA, UEFA and The FA – allow the introduction of more officials in the game. There you will see more respect for officials on their decisions, and and improved performance all round – providing they get the decision spot, the majority of the game.
(This is an open debate, if you decide to comment).
